Broken

Plans to protect people fall ‘far short of what is needed’, government told, as MP warns of heatwave deathsUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK government is facing increasingly urgent calls for action to protect people against the intensifying effects of the climate crisis, as the highest maximum temperature record for June was broken for the third day in a row.With the country in the grip of the worst heatwave ever recorded in western Europe – a direct result of global heating – the chair of parliament’s environmental audit committee warned ministers of the urgent threat and said the UK was falling “far short of what is needed”. Continue reading...

• Afghanistan is facing a dire economic crisis nearly five years after the Taliban returned to power. • The collapse is driven by a combination of deep-rooted domestic structural failures and persistent regional geopolitical constraints. • This instability highlights the Taliban's inability to establish a functioning financial system or secure broad international legitimacy.

Thermometer shows 23.5C overnight in Welsh capital as climate crisis makes such extreme temperatures more severe and more likelyEurope live – latest updatesA sweltering night in Cardiff has broken another new UK heat record as brutally hot conditions continue across England and Wales. Temperatures only fell to 23.5C overnight in the Welsh capital, the Met Office said, making it the highest minimum temperature ever recorded in June.The UK’s high temperature record for June is also likely to be broken on Thursday, just a day after the previous record. The heatwave, supercharged by the climate crisis, drove the temperature to 36.1C at Gosport in Hampshire on Wednesday, beating the previous record of 35.6C set in Southampton in 1976. Continue reading...

• The traditional compact between American science and politics is fracturing, exemplified by budget hawks in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pressuring NASA to implement broad buyouts and early retirement packages. • This political interference extends to research constraints, where scientists like Christopher Reynolds face potential project cancellations and funding instability. • An NSF director warns that researchers attempting to ignore critical variables such as ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status to secure grants will face rejection from peer reviewers.

• The 2026 FIFA World Cup has become the largest in history, featuring 48 teams and a record 1,248 registered players across 26-man squads. • For the first time, the tournament is co-hosted by three sovereign nations—the United States, Canada, and Mexico—spanning 39 days from June 11 to July 19. • The event boasts the largest prize pool in sports history at $727 million, with the winning federation earning $50 million and all participants receiving at least $10.5 million.

Ayoub Junaid, seven, given new pair but needs surgery as Gaza’s children remain unable to access treatmentA video of a seven-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza who suffers from a severe visual impairment crying over his shattered glasses has drawn widespread attention across social and international media.The footage of Ayoub Junaid has shone a light on the plight of the many visually impaired children in Gaza who, because of Israel’s blockade and the devastation caused by the war, have been unable to access eye examinations, corrective lenses or specialist ophthalmic surgery. Continue reading...

• The 2026 World Cup in North America will feature an expanded tournament format, creating numerous opportunities for players to break long-standing historical records. • Spain's 18-year-old star Lamine Yamal is highlighted as a primary contender to challenge the record for the youngest Golden Boot winner. • The current record was set 16 years ago by a Bayern Munich forward who won the Golden Boot and Best Young Player award at age 20.

Some Iranians hoped foreign intervention would unseat the regime but instead the US-Israel war has damaged livelihoods and strengthened those in powerAs Donald Trump swung this week between threats of new military action against Iran and predictions that a lasting ceasefire deal was imminent, many Iranians were left exhausted and gripped by uncertainty.Despite the partial lifting of an internet shutdown that began when the war started on 28 February, fears of worsening repression at home have also fuelled pessimism about the future among some of those to whom the Guardian spoke. Continue reading...

Global events and the climate crisis have left Britain’s food system dangerously exposed and in desperate need of an overhaulThe news that the Treasury was asking UK supermarkets to cap price rises on essential foods was greeted with predictable squeals of horror this week. Supermarkets were reportedly “furious”, while luminaries from the former head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies to the former chair of M&S could be found harrumphing about the evils of price controls.But this caterwauling is a distraction from two unpleasant facts. Firstly, the food price surge over the summer and beyond is likely to be significant – and will come on top of a near-40% rise in the price of food since 2020 – due to a devastating combination of the Iran war and a forecast record-breaking El Niño, which will hammer global food production. And secondly, Britain’s food system is painfully exposed to such shocks. The long-held assumption that a global food system can be relied on to meet the nation’s needs, at a reasonable price, no longer applies. Continue reading...

Marsh Street has been cited as Bristol’s worst for potholes. But it’s just one of many crumbling roads in Britain as councils face repairs backlogs and lack of fundsMarsh Street in the historic centre of Bristol is a modest little stretch of road with an office block at one end, a Thai restaurant at the other, and an almighty mess in between.Along its length of 200 metres or so, the tarmac surface of the road is pockmarked with many dozens of cracks, patches, divots and holes. In some spots where the surface has worn away, three or more layers of road structure are exposed beneath. What is a bouncy enough ride in a bus or car is even more of an assault course for cyclists, a number of whom weave carefully down its length as they cut through the city centre. Continue reading...

Parliamentary rule that only English is allowed has reignited debate about language, legitimacy and postcolonial identityWhen the Jamaican MP Nekeisha Burchell stood up to give her maiden speech, she was keenly aware of how much her country’s parliament mirrored the Westminster version thousands of miles away in London.As in the UK, the session on 12 May had started with the arrival of the ceremonial mace – a 1.7-metre ornamented silver staff representing the British monarch’s authority over parliament – which now rested on a table between the government and the opposition. Despite the heat outside, debate was presided over by the speaker dressed in a ceremonial robe. Continue reading...

Ukrainians lament appalling toll of fighting on their country’s bird populationRussia sent kamikaze drones to attack the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in February. They hit buildings and killed several people. One unreported victim of the bombardment was a male long-eared owl, blinded in one eye and found with a badly broken wing. A passerby scooped up the stunned bird, put him in a box and took him to the city of Dnipro.The owl – nicknamed Sunny – is now recovering in a cosy room belonging to Veronica Konkova. No longer able to fly or hunt, Sunny instead hops around. Continue reading...

Celeste Calocane gives evidence for first time at inquiry into Valdo Calocane’s 2023 attacksThe mother of the man who killed three people in an attack in Nottingham in 2023 has told an inquiry that the mental health “system is broken” and until there is a crisis “no one listens to you”.Valdo Calocane, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to a suspended hospital order in January 2024 after killing students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, a 65-year-old caretaker, on 13 June 2023, and attempting to kill three others. Continue reading...

NHS experts and MPs say he ‘told a good story’ as health secretary while kicking the difficult cans down the roadUK politics live – latest updatesWes Streeting’s 22 months in office was characterised by relentless media interviews, newspaper editorials and Department of Health and Social Care press releases. They portrayed a dynamic health secretary who was clearing up the mess he inherited in the NHS, pushing ahead with radical changes and making progress on what matters most to patients – accessing care when they need it.Having initially declared the NHS “broken” – by the Conservatives – it is six months since he first declared that the health service was now, on his watch, “on the road to recovery” – a claim he has made regularly since. He included the gist of it again – a sort of greatest hits collection – in his resignation letter to Keir Starmer at lunchtime on Thursday. Continue reading...

Labor introduced condolence motions in parliament on Tuesday to honour the five-year-old who was allegedly murdered in Alice Springs last monthWarning: This article contains references to Indigenous Australians who have diedFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe mother of Kumanjayi Little Baby has directly asked politicians not to use the death of her daughter for “reasons that do not honour and respect my baby girl”.In a statement read out by the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, in a condolence motion for the five-year-old Warlpiri girl in the Senate on Tuesday, the girl’s mother, who has not been named for her own safety, asked that her child not be used for political gain. Continue reading...

US president’s latest outburst comes a day after he suggested a possible reduction in US troops in GermanyWhy does the US have military bases in Germany – and will Trump follow through on his threat to cut numbers?Donald Trump has again lashed out at Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz, saying he should focus on “fixing his broken country” and trying to end the Russia-Ukraine war – and spend less time “interfering” in Iran.“The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!),” Trump wrote in a social media post. Continue reading...

Report says company did not pay tens of thousands in tax on dividends given to Reform UK deputy leader and trustRichard Tice’s company has been accused of breaking the law by allegedly failing to pay tens of thousands of pounds in tax on dividends that were paid to him and his offshore trust.Reform UK’s multimillionaire deputy leader is alleged to have received at least £91,000 in excess payments as a result, the Sunday Times reported. Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates – whose analysis was cited by the newspaper – said that further analysis suggested that the total in tax that should have been paid by Tice’s company was about £120,000. Continue reading...

Finbar Sullivan, who ‘loved movies and making films’, had gone to London park to use new camera, says fatherA film student who was stabbed to death in London’s Primrose Hill was a “beautiful, lovely, outgoing, loving” man, his father has said.Finbar Sullivan, 21, was stabbed in a fight in the north London park in the early evening on Tuesday and was pronounced dead at the scene. Continue reading...

Experts say paid participants are using automated tools to generate unreliable survey responses at scaleIf you had been keeping tabs on the news about church attendance in Britain lately, you would be forgiven for thinking the country was in the midst of a Christian revival.Stories of swelling congregations, filled with young people returning to the flock, spurred on by everything from social media to a rise in bible sales appeared to be confirmed by a 2024 report from the Bible Society. Continue reading...